I Need Help Please
 

Hello All: I have several questions and thought I would start here.

1) My husband needs to renew his British passport while living in the USA

2) We are planning on moving back to the UK. We are married. Should I apply for a visa while we still live in the US or wait until I get to the UK?

3) We are planning on taking our 2 dogs with us on the move to the UK. Any suggestions on making the paperwork & trip easier? I have been on the Defra website and it is so confusing. Any suggestions on a certified vet in Indianapolis, IN to fill out the paperwork on the Pet Scheme? Not sure if my vet would be qualified.

Thanks so much in advance for your help. :(

Re: I Need Help Please
 

1. Is your husband now a US citizen, or does he want to abandon his green card?

2. ABSOLUTELY you have to get the right UK visa before you leave. If you show up as a tourist you will have to go back to the USA.

Re: I Need Help Please
 

He is NOT a US citizen and yes, he will abandon his green card.

Re: I Need Help Please
 

Interesting. Why does he want to do that?
What happens if he wants to come back to the USA later on?

Re: I Need Help Please
 

Because he is not settled in the US and really does not want to live here anymore. Maybe a visit would be all he is up for.

Re: I Need Help Please
 

It's great that you want to take the pooches. Defra is a bit confusing but I think if you search BritishExpats you'll be able to find a step-by-step guide to the pet passport scheme. You need to start more than 6 months before your planned moving date as the 6 months don't start counting down until the dogs have been blood tested to ensure the rabies vaccine has taken.

The paperwork is the complicated bit, the medical bits aren't too hard, aside from the rabies vaccine there's the microchip and then 48 hours before they fly the dogs need a tick & tapeworm treatment. The vaccine and tick and tapeworm type have to be specific, I'm not sure about the type of microchip but the animal reception people will need to be able to read the chip with their reader.

British passports are taking quite a long time to get renewed in the US at the moment so your DH should get his application in asap.

Funnily enough getting your spouse visa will be the quickest of the 3 things. If you've been married over 4 years you might want to put a little note in with your application to ensure they give you the right visa as once you have passed the Life In The Uk test you're entitled to Indefinite Leave to Enter/Remain right away. If while you're preparing the dogs for their pet passports you happen to visit the UK, you can take the test and then send in the pass certificate with your spouse visa application form. That way you should get ILE right away without the annotation about having to pass Life in the UK. The pass certs do not have an expiry date.

Re: I Need Help Please
 

Oh if you want a Life in the UK book to study from, I have one that a Kiwi/Oz citizen friend at my work gave me thinking my American husband would be interested. My DH isn't bothered about getting UK citizenship though and when he got his permanent residency you didn't have to pass the Life in the UK (a few years ago). My Aussie colleague said the test was really easy.

We're going on holiday tomorrow so not back at work until Monday and the book is in my desk, but if you like PM me and I'll post it to you when I get back.

Re: I Need Help Please
 

Not to sound discouraging, but I thought the Life in the UK test was anything but 'really easy' ! I passed it (2010) , but I studied my *&$ off and found it very, very challenging.

Re: I Need Help Please
 

Thank you everyone for your help on this. It is a bit daunting but I'm not the first one to do it and won't (I'm sure) be the last. It just seems so much to do to get ready and get everything correct so we won't be turned away.

Re: I Need Help Please
 

Thanks for the help. Just to be curious, what kind of questions do they ask? Just a few would be fine to let me know. I don't want to take up too much of your time. Are you American that moved to England?

Re: I Need Help Please
 

Husband's passport doesn't run out until October, 2012. When do you think we should submit application? About the spouse visa, we've been been married 10 years this coming January. Does the spouse visa have an expiry date? I've been wondering about that. Do you know if the pet passport also has an expiry date? Gosh, all so daunting. Will I make it!!!! :rofl:

Re: I Need Help Please
 

http://lifeintheuktest.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/

- if you use Google, there are example questions available online:

http://www.hiren.info/life-in-the-uk-test/1

http://www.hiren.info/life-in-the-uk-test/2

Re: I Need Help Please
 

I'm English, born and bred, but I failed it miserably doing the on-line practise test.....

Re: I Need Help Please
 

Sounds like they want you to fail. My husband is born & bred and I bet he would fail the test too. What a crock! Thanks Dunroving for this info. At least, I know what I am up against. I need to study.

Re: I Need Help Please
 

I got 48% :thumbdown:

I have sent the link to a young colleague at work who has never lived anywhere else but here and he said he is going to have a go today at lunch time and reckons he will pass no worries.

We shall see. :lol:

Re: I Need Help Please
 

I just tried one test... I got 73%. Not bad, but not enough to pass!! And I've lived in the UK my entire 35 years. That's a tricky test....

Re: I Need Help Please
 

Buy the main book and the study guides - official ones only not the other rubbish on the market. learn it by rote that is the only way to do it.
My OH did it last year and I helped him learn the stuff it is not easy but it is just a matter of learning by rote and then watching for the little trick questions

Re: I Need Help Please
 

I did 4 tests and passed 2 of them. Some questions you just have to guess, like what %age of the population lives in Scotland. There are also some answers that I thought were wrong or a matter of opinion. It's a bad test.

Now to the OP, I assume you are a US citizen. If so what happens if you don't like the UK and want to move back when your husband no longer as a GC?

Re: I Need Help Please
 

Not sure if this question was asked to me. Anyway, if so, I love the UK but have never lived there so we will have to see if I make it or not. I have no family here in the US and family (in-laws) in the UK. I'm sorry but I don't know the lingo on this forum so what do you mean by OP and is GC green card? If green card is correct, if I wanted to move back, I would have to come back on my own. He won't leave England again to come back to the US. Sorry for being stupid about OP & GC but if you don't know, you have to ask, right? :)

Re: I Need Help Please
 

Which one is the main book & study guides?

Re: I Need Help Please
 

I didn't mean the test was easy without studying, I mean if you study a bit it is easy. To put it in context, I'm a member of a few forums and no American (or Canadian, Aussie or Kiwi for that matter) has ever failed the test that I've heard of. Most finish in several minutes and don't need the 45 minutes you get.

I don't think they want you to fail at all. That's not the idea behind the test. They just want you to know a bit about the country you are making home. It's only like the US citizenship test and you'd have to pass the test to get UK citizenship anyway, even if, like my husband, you got Indefinite Leave To Remain before the test got introduced. At least having already passed the test, you don't need any additional test should you choose to go the extra step and naturalise.

I believe they may do classes for Life in the UK like they do citizenship classes in the USA, but like the USA, these classes are not really aimed at native English speakers.

OP = original poster, GC = yes green card.

Re: I Need Help Please
 

The test syllabus largely reflects the priorities and ideology of the Labour Party which introduced it.

Re: I Need Help Please
 

All HMSO publications: Life in the UK study guide, practice questions and the main book something like pathway to citizenship can not remember left the books with someone else.

Loads of folk jumped on the bandwagon and produced guides etc but these are the official ones - think there is a CD too but did not get that. Some questions on the official site.

Just learn it by rote and read the questions carefully as there seems to be the odd trick question eg The main reader may say that 54.5% of the population do not have passports in the UK (not a real question but an example) and the test may ask what % do have passports? Needs careful reading.

Re: I Need Help Please
 

I got 79% but I guessed quite a few, and I thought some of the questions were irrelevant when it comes to fitting in over here. Does knowing where has the most police officers matter?

Knowing about food and drink and customs might, but the one question about food was about a Christmas food, and only one answer had Christmas in it.:lol:

What ones would you add?

What about: What's a bank holiday?
1. An event once a decade when all customer debts to banks are wiped out.
2. A holiday touring the great banks of Europe.
3. A statutory hoilday in the UK.

Not sure my last definition is technically accurate.

Bev